Colds and flu : How to help your toddler through the sneezing season As the weather cools and people spend more time indoors, your toddler (like the rest of us) is exposed to more of the viruses that cause colds and flu. Find out what to do when your toddler gets a cold, how to tell an illness from an allergy, how to keep your toddler from catching a bug in the first place, and more. • What you can do if your toddler gets the sniffles. • From our Store: A humidifier can help your child breathe easier. • How to make a toddler with the flu feel better. • From our Store: Measure fever with thermometers made just for young children. Why does my child get so many colds? Because 200 different viruses can cause the common cold, and your child can develop immunity to them only one at a time. Remember all the colds you've had over your lifetime? Your child would have to had all of them — and more — to be immune to all cold viruses. Since she's likely to be exploring a lot and touching everything, it's easy for her to pick up a cold virus on her hands. Then all she has to do is put her fingers in her nose or rub her eyes, and the virus will get a chance to set up shop in her nasal passages and make her miserable for a few weeks. If she just puts a contaminated toy into her mouth she won't get a cold; the virus has to get into your child's nose to cause infection. Your toddler may get sick more often during the fall and winter months because cold air and indoor heating dry out her nasal membranes, making it easier for a cold virus to get a foothold there. She also spends more time during cold weather cooped up indoors, where viruses are more likely to spread from one person to another. And recent studies have confirmed what working parents already know: Children in daycare get more colds, ear infections, runny noses, and other respiratory troubles than kids cared for at home. Even if she's not around lots of other children, your toddler is likely to have six to 12 colds a year. As she gets older, the number of colds she gets will diminish, dwindling to about three a year in the teen years. How can I tell she has a cold and not the flu or allergies? If your child is running a fever higher than 101 degrees F, has a clear runny nose, is unusually lethargic, complains about feeling achy all over, and loses her appetite, it's probably the flu. The stuffy or runny nose (characterized by thick white, yellow, or green mucus), sore throat, and cough that accompany a cold won't make your child as miserable as the flu does. A child with the flu may also have diarrhea or vomiting. Itchy, watery eyes and nose are hallmarks of an allergy, as are repeated sneezing attacks and itchy skin that lasts for weeks or months, while the average cold lasts only seven to 10 days. Also, the mucus coming out of your child's nose will continue to run clear, rather than thickening and turning yellow or green as it tends to in children with colds. Fever is not associated with allergies, which tend to show up in the spring, summer, and early fall. How should I treat my child's cold? No medicine will make the virus go away faster, but you can do a few things to ease your child's misery. Offer her plenty of liquids: Her body is working hard to fight off the infection, and she'll need to stay hydrated, especially if she has a fever. Warm liquids, such as chicken soup and vegetable broth, soothe the throat and temporarily unclog congested nasal passages. (Don't give your toddler a throat lozenge to suck on; they're a choking hazard for children under 4.) Since children aren't developmentally ready to blow their nose until about age 4, you'll have to help ease her congestion in other ways: • Use a rubber bulb syringe to suction out the mucus, if she'll let you (toddlers are more likely to resist this tactic than babies). • Set up a humidifier or cool mist vaporizer in her bedroom. The moist air will help keep her nose from clogging up, making it easier to sleep. • Sit with her in the bathroom and run the shower for about 15 minutes. Steam helps ease congestion. A warm bath can accomplish the same thing — adding menthol or eucalyptus oil to the water is a safe and soothing way to temporarily unclog a stuffy nose. (Find soothing vapor bath products in our Store.) • Elevate the head of her mattress, if she's still in a crib, by placing a couple of towels between the mattress head and the crib springs. (Never put anything under the legs of the crib, though, as that could make it unstable.) If she's old enough to sleep in her own bed, you can try propping her head up with an extra pillow. Is it okay to give my child over-the-counter cold medicine? Clifford Harris, a pediatrician in San Leandro, California, and a member of BabyCenter's advisory board, recommends you save these medications for when your child really needs them, such as at nighttime, when her symptoms may be keeping her (and you) from getting any rest. So if your toddler gets stuffed up in the middle of the night, it's okay to give her an over-the-counter decongestant to help her get some sleep. But call your pediatrician the next morning before giving her any additional medicine, particularly if the medicine made her hyperactive instead of drowsy. Most drugstore remedies are a combination of decongestants and antihistamines, a formula that can cause hyperactivity in some children. Don't use nasal spray decongestants for more than a few days in a row since this can cause a rebound effect that will just make the problem worse. You don't need to worry about a rebound effect with other medicines if you use them only occasionally. These medications won't shorten the duration of a cold or prevent complications such as a sinus or ear infection. For treating fever, children's acetaminophen or ibuprofen can ease your toddler's discomfort. Never give a child aspirin; it makes her more susceptible to Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease. What natural or alternative treatments can help relieve my child's cold symptoms? You can give your child a weak lukewarm solution of peppermint or chamomile tea to ease congestion, according to Dr. Harris. Kathi Kemper, author of The Holistic Pediatrician, also recommends chamomile tea to calm and soothe a sick child. A word of warning: Never use ma huang, also known as ephedra or ephedrine, an herbal decongestant. Its potency can vary widely, and the Food and Drug Administration has linked it (in adults) to a thousand bad reactions, including high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, seizures, heart attack, and stroke. Remember too, that no scientific studies support the safety of any herbal remedies in children, and many herbalists recommend against using herbs to treat children. Herbs are not regulated as medications, so their potency and purity aren't controlled. How can I tell if my child's cold has turned into something more serious? A cold virus does take a toll on a young child's immune system, so your toddler will be more vulnerable to roving bacteria. If you notice any of the following symptoms, call your pediatrician. They may mean that your child has developed a bacterial infection on top of the virus and may need antibiotics. • Complaints of ear pain, which may signal an ear infection • A thick yellow or green nasal discharge for more than 10 days with headaches and pressure over the forehead and under the eyes, which may be a sinus infection • A worsening cough accompanied by fever and difficulty breathing, which could be signs of pneumonia • A sore throat that comes on abruptly with a high fever and tender, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, which may mean your child has strep throat • Wheezing, which can be a sign of a viral infection such as bronchiolitis • A fever (over 100 degrees F, taken rectally) that lasts for more than three days Is there anything I can do to reduce the number of colds my child gets? Good old-fashioned hand washing is still the best way to keep your child from catching a cold. You don't have to use antibacterial soap, either; any soap will wash away the oil on skin that contains germs. While you can't make a stubborn 2-year-old wash her hands after every brush with germs, try to make a habit of washing before sitting down for a meal, or after a play-date or a visit to the park. If your child is in daycare, make sure your childcare provider is conscientious about hand washing. And though your toddler probably can't blow her own nose now, you can lay the groundwork for good hygiene habits by showing her how to blow into a tissue or to cough into her shoulder instead of her hands. Toddlers love to imitate their parents — if you make a habit of washing your hands and using tissues, so will she. It's okay to give your toddler vitamin C, although there's no definitive scientific evidence that it will prevent colds. You can give your toddler chewable children's vitamins with added C if you want to try and boost your child's immune system, but don't give her more than 500 milligrams of C a day. Your child can get about 60 mg of the vitamin in half a cup of strawberries or half a cup of orange juice. In general, make sure your child is maintaining a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, resting enough, and (when she's not sick) getting plenty of exercise. Fact-checked by the BabyCenter Editorial Team and approved by our Medical Advisory Board. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! http://photos.yahoo.com/ >> Kirim bunga ke-20 kota di Indonesia? Klik, http://www.indokado.com >> Info balita, http://www.balita-anda.indoglobal.com Etika berinternet, email ke: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stop berlangganan, e-mail ke: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
